Happier Times
by Taura Callisto
Summary: Nosedive has been having nightmares lately, can Wildwing and the rest of the team help him?
1. Default Chapter

Happier Times

Disclaimer: I don't own the Mighty Ducks, so there!!

AN: This is my first fic, so please, please, please, read and review, and tell me what you think. And be HONEST!! I want to know if I suck or not (hopefully not) and perhaps tell me any suggestions you have that could make it better. I've rewritten some of it and I'm almost finished with the next part. Sorry if its to short, it was suppose to only be a short story but its gotten much bigger than I had originally planned, so bear with me. =)

Nosedive sat on his bed; his mind wondering back to the nightmare he had just woken up from. He had been having nightmares for weeks now, and as a result he had gotten little sleep. Every night it was the same dream:

He was back on Puckworld as a young duckling around the age of ten. He and his friends were playing street hockey, as they did everyday during the summer. Suddenly, out of nowhere, dark, ominous clouds rolled in and blocked out the sun. Then rain started to come down in cold, hard sheets, soaking the young ducklings to the bone. 

Nosedive quickly abandoned his hockey gear, and made a mad dash for home, hoping to seek shelter from the pelting raindrops. He made it home in record time, stopping at the front door to take his shoes off before proceeding any further into the house, knowing that his mom would have a cow if he tracked mud all over the carpet. 

"Mom, I'm home" he yelled as he walked into the kitchen, expecting to see her making a cup of hot cocoa for him, but found the kitchen empty. 

"MOM?!" he yelled a little louder, but still no answer came. 'I bet she's upstairs and just didn't hear me' he thought to himself, an uneasy feeling coming over him. He grabbed a towel from the laundry room to dry his hair and after checking the other rooms down stairs and not finding anyone, he headed upstairs to see what held his family's attention so much so, that they wouldn't even acknowledge his presence like they always did. 

Nosedive made a quick stop by his room to grab some dry clothes. After shifting though the mess on his floor for a moment he found his favorite jersey and an old pair of jeans that he had only worn twice, threw them on, and headed towards his parents bedroom. He knocked on the door, like his mother had always taught him to do, but received no answer. The uneasy feeling came over him again and he knocked harder, turning his knuckles red. After a moment of waiting, he grew impatient, gripped the handle and let himself in the room, ignoring the nagging voice in his head that told him it was rude to go into someone's room uninvited. "MOM, DAD, are you here?" not bothering to wait for a reply he checked the bathroom, and the closet, and found both places empty; he even checked under the bed out of desperation, but only found some dust balls and his dad's old hockey sticks.

Panicked that his both his parents were nowhere to be found, he ran to Wildwing's room hoping that he would know where they were. Not bothering to knock, he burst into Wings room. "Bro, have you seen mom and dad, I....." he glanced around, Wildwing wasn't there. He gave the room one more glance before leaving and heading downstairs to the living room. The house seemed to be void of all life, almost as if no one had lived there for hundreds of years. Fear was beginning to replace his uneasy feeling as he tried to analyze the situation. 'Mom, dad, and Wildwing are missing. They were here when I left, and mom said they would be here when I got back. The car is still here and they'd never go anywhere when it was storming this bad outside, at least not without leaving a note or something.' He sank down to the living room floor and hugged his knees to his chest. Something was wrong; he could feel it deep inside him. He sat there for a few moments pondering what to do next when he heard a soft noise coming from outside. Hoping that it was his family, he quickly got up and went to the window. 

It had grown almost pitch black outside, from the storm, even though it was only four in the afternoon. A strange fog had rolled in, making it hard for Nosedive to see much of anything besides what was two feet in front of him. With a sigh, he moved away from the window and was about to go sit down when he heard the strange noise once again, only this time it was louder. 

Nosedive quickly threw his shoes on to go and investigate the strange noise. He slowly opened the door and peeked outside, the noise seemed to be coming from two different directions, he took one more glance around the living room then took a deep breath to muster up his courage and stepped outside, slowly closing the door behind him.

The soft noise had now turned into a quite chanting, which grew louder by the second. Nosedive reached the street in front of his house and stopped; the chanting seemed to be coming from every where, bouncing off the dense fog, making it hard to discern which way it was coming from. He glanced around nervously, trying to slow down his racing heart. In seconds it seemed the fog grew thicker, almost tangible, and completely engulfed him. Nosedive looked around him, lost in the haze, the chanting had now become what seemed like hundreds of angry voices. Panic rushed though his veins, 'why did I come out here, this is stupid. I should be inside where it's safe.' As if reading his thoughts, thunder boomed close by, reminding him of the storm. 

He looked around trying to decide which direction his house was in, knowing that he had to get away from the awful sound of the voices. But before he could run, dark shadows appeared in the fog, blocking his escape. 

Slowly the shadows took form, as the fog in the immediate area seemed to disappear. Out of the fog stepped hundreds of zombiefied (AN: their not the living dead, their just in a trance like state) ducks all pointing at him with a look of blame in their sightless eyes. Their chanting was mumbled and overwhelmingly loud. 

He tried to run away from the angry mob, but three ducks grabbed him, holding him in place. Slowly he looked up at them, he's eyes widened in shock. It was his mom, dad and Wildwing. He tried to free himself from them, but they held him in a crushing grip.

They pushed him to the ground roughly, and Nosedive stayed there curled in a ball, to petrified with fear to move. His friends and family slowly closed in on him, their hands reaching to grab him, to hurt him. 

Over and over with hollow, sandpaper like voices, they kept chanting:

****

"It's all your fault! It's all your fault! It's all your fault! It's all your fault!" 

Suddenly, Nosedive was lifted up off the ground by the scruff of his neck and brought face to face with an older, angry looking Wildwing. Wildwing's eyes, like blazing hot, black coals, seemed to stare a hole straight though Nosedive, making him cringe in fear. Nosedive's world seemed to crumble as he listened to the hateful words that poured out of his brother's mouth, loud enough to be heard over the thunderous chanting.

"I hate you! You've been nothing but a thorn in my side since you were born! I'm always having to risk my neck to save your scrawny ass! You do nothing but bring the team down, you endanger our lives constantly, your always playing practical jokes and you never take anything serious. Your useless! How could I ever love something that is as pathetic as you are. I should have never brought you along, I should have left you where you belong, in the camps, with the rest of the gutter trash! Everything that has ever happened to me is ALL YOUR FAULT!" 

* * *

TO BE CONTINUED

Well this is all I have right now, I hope to put the rest up soon. So in the meantime ya'll have to read and review and tell me what you think about it. I know Wildwing sounds very harsh but I have to freak Nosedive out somehow, and what better way to do than to have his beloved older brother be the hateful sounding one. Don't worry its just a dream. =) 


	2. Chapter 2

Hello all!!! WOW, I'm so happy, that I got some reviews, ya'll are great!! =) Well anyways, here's the next part, I hope you like it. This wasn't suppose to be a multi part story, I just got eager to put it up, so it probably won't be that long. =)

* * *

Even when he was awake the dream would replay itself in his mind and Wildwing's words would echo in his ears hours after waking up, never giving him a moment of rest.

He'd been plagued with similar dreams after breaking free from the camps, but that was understandable since it was such a traumatic experience. And aside from the occasional attack from Draguanus and other idiotic humans, his life was relatively peaceful. That's why Nosedive couldn't understand why he was having nightmares all of a sudden.

A knock at his door brought him out of his thoughts. "WHAT?," he answered, 'please don't let it be Wildwing, I'm in no mood for his lectures and I don't think I could face him right now, not after just waking up.' he thought to himself.

"Dive, it's me, Wing. Can I come in?"

Silence.

"Dive?"

"Yeah, whatever, just make it quick"

The door slowly opened, and Wildwing took a peek inside. Being careful of the various junk on the floor, Wing made his way over to the bed and sat down next to his brother. They sat there in an awkward silence for a moment until finally Nosedive couldn't stand it any longer.

"Well, what did you want?"

"Oh, uh, I just wanted to see how you were doing. I haven't talked to you in a while, and every time I try, you always seem to disappear. I thought that something might be wrong."

Nosedive sighed, 'has it been that obvious.' "Nothings wrong bro, thanks for the concern and all, but I'm fine, nothings wrong." He hated lying to his brother but he knew that if he confessed to something being wrong, Wildwing would keep pushing at him until he finally gave in and told him about his nightmares. And that would mean revealing some of his deepest hidden fears. He'd gone to great depths to keep his nightmares a secret, even going as far as playing his music extremely loud so that no one would hear him scream when he woke up. He wasn't about to tell Wildwing everything, not right now at least. He would never hear the end of it.

Wildwing sighed in exasperation. 'your not going to make this easy for me are you little bro.' "If you say so, but I'm not leaving here until I'm convinced that your ok. So start talkin."

Nosedive groaned softly in aggravation and moved to get up from the bed, but was held back by the gentle hand of his brother. He shook the hand off and stepped away from Wing, an angry glare in his eyes.

"Why are you doing this, just leave me alone!"

Wildwing stared in shock at his younger brother, surprised by his sudden outburst, but quickly came back to reality.

"I'm doing this to help you, your obviously troubled by something."

"I don't need your help or anybody else's for that matter. I can get though this on my own"

"Get though what? Can you at least tell me what your trying to get though" 

"It's none of your business!"

"Well I'm making it my business, your my little brother and it worries me to see you so upset" 

Wildwing stared into his brother's eyes trying to gauge what his emotions were. Anger was the most obvious, but looking a little further Wing could see confusion, sadness, hope, and ....FEAR? What could Nosedive possibly be afraid of? 

Sensing that Nosedive wasn't going to say anything more at least not without a fight, Wildwing got up to leave, but not before grabbing Nosedive in a bear hug and whispering softly to him "You know that if there's ever anything wrong you can always come to me, I'll always be here for you"

He felt Nosedive's body tense in his arms, and he let go of him to see what was wrong, but Nosedive merely turned away, not letting Wildwing see his face.

Wildwing sighed, "Fine, if you need anything, you know where to find me." And with that Wildwing left.

Nosedive turned around to make sure that Wildwing had truly left, and when he was positive that he was gone, he sank to his knees and cried his heart out until he eventually fell into a fitful sleep.

* * *

TO BE CONTINUED...

Ok, so how was that? Good/Bad, tell me what you think. The next chapter should be the last, hopefully, unless my crazy mind comes up with more good Nosedive torture. Sorry that it is so short but it was originally suppose to be a one part story, like I said before so please forgive me. =o) 


	3. Chapter 3

Nosedive jolted awake, sucking in air like he hadn't had any in years. He'd been lucky this time, waking up early enough to be spared the horrors of the nightmare that plagued him every time he shut his eyes. 

Finally, when he had managed to get his heartbeat back to normal, he looked around the room, noticing for the first time that he was still on the floor, and the painful crick in his neck seemed to enjoy reminding him why he didn't sleep on the floor to often.

He slowly climbed to his feet, and stretched, trying to get the kinks out of his neck and back.

The conversation he had had with Wildwing a few hours ago came to mind and he winced slightly. He knew he should have said something to him about his dreams, perhaps Wildwing could have helped, but he didn't feel like getting him involved. He wanted to deal with his problems by himself.

His stomach growled and snapped him out of his thoughts. He gave a humorless laugh and decided to go get something to eat since he hadn't eaten since breakfast the day before. He had been spending most of his time in his room lately and rarely left it long enough to even get food for himself. 

Nosedive hesitated at his bedroom door, wondering if it was worth the effort and trouble to walk all the way to the kitchen, his growling stomach decided it was. He took one look around the hall before exiting to make sure no one was in sight, then gathering as much energy as he could, he made a mad dash towards the kitchen.

Nosedive sighed in relief when the kitchen door came in to sight and there was still no sign of Wildwing or the others. He opened the kitchen door and peeked in, only seeing Duke and Mallory sitting at the kitchen table talking quietly over a cup of coffee. He groaned at the thought of having to possibly confront any of his team mates, but decided that he was too hungry to turn back now. He hoped they wouldn't say anything. 

They looked up as he came in and gave him an odd look, then glanced back at each other before continuing to watch him. Nosedive, choosing to ignore them, made his way over to the refrigerator to take out the various items he would need. As he turned from the refrigerator he risked a glance at them then went to the cabinet and took out a plate and a glass. 

The entire time they stayed quite, opting to sit and watch their youngest team mate. The only sounds that could be heard were the soft noises of Nosedive making a sandwich.

Finally, not being able to stand the silence any longer, Nosedive whirled around to face them.

"What is _wrong_ with you people!!! Why are you staring at me like I just grew another beak. I can't possibly be that interesting!"

He turned around again, and grabbed his sandwich and drink and made his way towards the kitchen door, eager to get back to the solitude of his room. But before he could, Duke called out his name.

"Nosedive wait up!"

"Leave me alone Duke!" Nosedive exclaimed, then continued on his way. 

Duke and Mallory exchanged worried glances, then hurried after their young team mate.

"Hey kid, hold up a sec, I wanna talk to you" Duke called to Dive's back.

"GO AWAY!!" Nosedive called back. This time Mallory tried.

"Please Nosedive" she nearly begged, "we just want to speak with you."

Nosedive made an odd sound, that was somewhere between a growl and a whine, then turned around.

"Look, all I want to do, is take my sandwich and drink here, and go back to my room without being hounded on. Is that to much to ask?"

"What's wrong kid?" Duke ignored Nosedives question and got right to the point.

"What makes you people think that there is anything wrong! What, I can't have a bad day? I have to be Mr. Happy-Go-Lucky all the time? Why can't you leave me alone, that's all I ask."

"Nosedive, you've been like this for weeks, I hardly think this classifies as a bad day anymore." Mallory looked up at him to see if anything she was saying was getting through his thick skull. She sighed inwardly at his blank look, then continued.

"Your locked up in your room all the time, and when you do come out you look half dead. You've got huge, black bags under your eyes, you look incredibly pale, and it's obvious that you've lost some weight, you look like a twig your so skinny. Even your hair, that you always take good care of, is stringy and lifeless looking. If someone even utters a word to you, you yell at them, and your trying to tell me that nothing is wrong? Now let's try this again. What is the problem here?"

Nosedive looked back and forth between Duke and Mallory. The anger was gone from his eyes and was now replaced by something that was akin to helplessness. He opened his beak to say something but was cut off by the loud sound of Drake1's alarms. 

Duke groaned at the bad timing and turn back to Nosedive.

"We'll continue this when we get back, ok kid. Right now we hafta go see what ol' lizard lips wants." With that said, both Duke and Mallory, took off down the hall towards the Ready room to see what the problem was.

Nosedive stood where he was, thinking about what had just happened and trying to decide if he cared enough to go see what Dragonous was up to. Realizing that he didn't really have a choice, he slowly made his way to the ready room, where the rest of the team was already gathered.

*******

Ok, so I said that this was going to be the last chapter. But since I'm taking so long to update it, I thought that I should put up what I have finished. Sorry about it being so short, but oh well, get over it =) Thanks to everyone for reading it and leaving such great reviews, I just love ya'll sooooo much (sniff, sniff. wipes tear from eye) ok, I'm ok now, anyways, I'll try to hurry with the last part.

CIAO

Taura 


	4. Not a new chapter just a note to say sor...

Hey, just wanted to tell everyone sorry for not updating in forever, and that it's probably going to be a few more months before I get another or hopefully the last chapter up. I'll try to have it up by summer, but with all my classes its hard to find time, cus I usually don't get home till 6:30 P.M. everyday. Thanks for reading and reviewing Happier Times, I really appreciate it. Until next time, Ciao. =0)

Taura Callisto


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